A "city symphony" film, produced to encourage Photographic Society of America members to attend their 1963 conference in Chicago. The film edits together beautiful and dynamic footage of Chicago and then combines this with a deadpan commentary that pokes fun at commercial travel films: "Chicago is my town," the narrator says wryly, "and no other town will do." Margaret Conneely was awarded a special prize by the Photographic Society of America for this film. From our Margaret Conneely Collection.

Margaret Conneely, an award winning and prolific amateur filmmaker, began making films when she joined a Chicago amateur film club in 1949. She shot and directed 16mm films at a time when most of the women of these clubs were less technically inclined and often delegated to the role of actress or slides manager. Her work is well crafted, clever and subtly subversive. One of her films, THE FAIRY PRINCESS (1956), was awarded a National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) preservation grant and the resulting elements will reside at CFA. Three others, including CHICAGO: CITY TO SEE IN '63 have been restored through a preservation grant from the Women's Film Preservation Fund and Colorlab film laboratories. For more information on these preservation projects, visit our website's preservation page at:

http://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/pres-projects

Chicago Film Archives holds the copyright for the films created by Margaret Conneely.